Impacts of Environmental Mass Incidents

Public participation in the environmental issues is gradually becoming a part in institutional and policy design in China. In practice, however, its implementation and enforcement cannot be guaranteed for various reasons. Under an unsound participatory mechanism, environmental mass incidents represent an extreme form of environmental public participation. The study evaluates the impacts of environmental mass incidents by comparing three representative cases. Four dimensions are emphasized in this study, including: (1) the nature and benefits of the infrastructure projects, (2) the causes of the environmental mass incidents, (3) the primary players leading the environmental mass incidents and their performance, and (4) the media's role. Overall, the decision makers are supposed to adaptively empower people through public participation in environmental decision-making, and to achieve a balance between concessions and control.